A Not Very Funny Valentine

"The Vagina Monologues" are coming to a theater near you again. Eve Ensler'
s politically
correct-feminist play is being dusted off on campuses and in communities around North America for
production, often at taxpayer expense.

, By Wendy McElroy, Tuesday, January
27, 2004

Since 1998, the play has been part of a drive to
convert Feb. 14 from chocolates and Valentines to Vaginas and Violence -- that is, to turn Valentine's Day
into "V-Day," a day of spotlighting male violence against women. But the backlash may surprise this year'
s
promoters. The hostile reception provides another indication that society is no longer willing to tolerate
political correctness.

What is V-Day? It is self-described by
organizers -- a coalition of feminist organizations -- as a global event to combat violence against women,
which occurs in the weeks surrounding Valentine'
s Day. This year, 2004, is touted as a celebration of "Vagina
Warriors," with reportedly "over 2000 community-based V-Day benefit events" scheduled -- 900 in the U.S.
V-Day'
s centerpiece is the performance of the "Vagina Monologues."
More..

Health professionals worry that the reported incidents of
women raping young boys are few, the actual occurrence is
believed to be higher and is causing long-term psychological
damage to victims.

"In terms of the most current statistics on child abuse, this
is not reflected as a large problem. But it is my sense that it
is even more grossly under-reported and under-recognised than
the typical child abuse scenario involving an older male
perpetrator and younger female victim," says Dr. Judith Leiba,
head of the Child Guidance Clinic at the Bustamante Hospital for
Children in Kingston. "We have seen a few examples where the
helper was involved, and in another situation, it was an older
female cousin.

Usually these boys were in the age group of five
to eight years old," Dr. Leiba reports.
More..

Virtual Library of Newspaper Articles

The Vagina Monologues Scripts

Take Back Valentine's Day!

Fox News, by Wendy McElroy, Tuesday, February 12, 2002

Politically correct feminists want Valentine's Day to become V-Day [link], standing for Vagina, Violence
(committed by men against women) and Victory.

Rather than taking 24 hours to celebrate romantic love, women are admonished to ponder rape and domestic
violence.

Since 1998, V-Day events have been sponsored on university campuses across America. The stated purpose is to
raise awareness. In reality, V-Day embodies the same double standard and dishonesty that has characterized
most feminist pronouncements for decades.

Consider the politically correct centerpiece of the V-Day events: The Vagina Monologues, the award-winning
play by radical feminist Eve Ensler that features women who literally represent vaginas that speak out in a
series of monologues.

The play is meant to decry rape and other violence against women.
Yet, the original performances of the play and the published book eulogize the lesbian "rape" of a
13-year-old girl by a 24-year-old woman who plies her with alcohol. The pedophile section is entitled "The
Little Coochi Snorcher That Could" - Coochi Snorcher being the nickname of the little girl's genitalia. Her
vagina's tale of seduction begins, "She gently and slowly lays me out on the bed ..."

After becoming more graphic, the little girl gratefully concludes, "I'll never need to rely on a man."

Both by statute and by feminist definition, the "seduction" scene
is rape. Nevertheless, the Coochi Snorcher declares, "... if it was rape, it was a good rape."

Such idealization of child molestation would have created a firestorm of outrage if the offending character
had been male. But the molester was female, so The Vagina Monologues won an OBIE Award on Broadway and noted
actresses clamored to be included in the cast. When The New York Times reported the buzz about Ensler, it
called her "the Messiah heralding the second wave of feminism."

However, audiences probably won't hear the Coochi Snorcher speaking of "good rape" in the 2002 performances.
In past years, some sections of The Vagina Monologues have caused embarrassment to the organizers and
university officials who have backed V-Day performances. The script has been changed.

One of the alterations: The 13-year-old vagina omits the more inflammatory passages.

The 2001, the www.feminist.com site, which coordinated performances,
was emphatic that performances for anti-violence/campus events adhere to the new script. It stated: "You
must use the version ... that is included in the Performance Kit that you will receive. No other version of
the play is acceptable for your production. Do not use the book of the play or versions of the script from
previous College Initiatives."

The site warned, "If you go forward with a production WITHOUT permission, you could be subject to legal
proceedings." Thus, the original words of the play were suppressed.

Ensler explained the differences in the play between one year to the next by calling The Vagina Monologues
an "ever-evolving work." But the sections dropped were ones that had drawn protest. And the imposition of
rigid control does not suggest a fluid, evolving process. Ensler will neither stand by her original words
nor admit to having made a political error in her ever so politically correct play.

In 2000, when Georgetown University's Women's Center sponsored a
performance of The Vagina Monologues, the conservative Robert Swope - a regular contributor to Georgetown
University's student paper, The Hoya - brought the Coochi Snorcher to national attention.

In the paper, Swope wrote, "why is rape only wrong when a man commits it, but when it's by a woman committed
against another woman, who just happens to be 13-years-old, it is celebrated and a university club sponsors
it?"

Swope was abruptly fired [link] from The Hoya. Accounts of his dismissal appeared in The Wall Street
Journal, Salon, National Review, The Washington Times, and The Weekly Standard, among others.

There is nothing wrong with literature that honestly explores every aspect of the human body or sexuality.
In 1970, the anthology Our Bodies, Ourselves became a well-deserved blockbuster precisely because it
candidly addressed women's health concerns and sexuality. But no honesty is expressed by feminists who
demand the "right" to speak on sensitive matters while fighting like mad dogs to shut down speech they find
offensive on the same subjects.

A play that claims to unveil the truth about vaginas but, somehow, overlooks the salutary role men play in
most women's sexuality has no credibility. Worse than this, The Vagina Monologues equates men with "the
enemy" and heterosexual love with violence.

Describing Ensler as "an evangelical minister," Dodson believes that the play is a blast of hatred at men
and heterosexuality. After all, the 24-year-old woman who seduces the drunken 13-year-old is portrayed as
"rescuing" her from male violence.

"Take Back the Night" is a rallying cry that PC feminism raises against male violence. Perhaps the rallying
call for Feb. 14 should be "Take Back the Day" - Valentine's Day - a cry that women who love the men in
their lives should take up.

If the personal is to be political, then let's get political by celebrating a day of romance and of
heterosexuality as a source of joy - as the source of life itself. On Feb. 14, I am giving my husband an
autographed copy of the latest book from one of his favorite authors: Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say by Warren Farrell.

Past that point, the personal becomes personal once more.

Wendy McElroy is the editor of www.ifeminists.com. She is the
author and editor of many books and articles, including the forthcoming anthology Liberty for Women: Freedom
and Feminism in the 21st Century (Ivan R. Dee/Independent Institute, 2002). She lives with her husband in
Canada.